Teen to be tried as adult for sledgehammer slayings

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A judge has ruled that a 15-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult in the bludgeoning deaths of a northeast Ohio couple.

The boy was barely 14 when he was arrested last year as an accomplice in the slayings of Jeffrey and Margaret Schobert in their home in New Franklin, near Akron. Authorities said they were beaten with a sledgehammer.

The Akron Beacon Journal (http://bit.ly/1fRBPhc ) reports that Summit County Juvenile Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio cited the “the brutal and heinous nature of this crime” in binding the teen over to the adult court.

The principal defendant, 19-year-old Shawn Eric Ford Jr., is charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and could face the death penalty if convicted. Police say he had dated the couple’s teenage daughter.

Check out mug shots released to the media by law enforcement officials in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio.

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